Jeffrey Stuart Green (born June 21, 1956) is a Canadian author, playwright, producer, and director, who has worked in a variety of media including radio, television, computer, DVD-based multimedia, and in live nightclub settings.[1] His work has earned him critical acclaim[2][3] and a number of awards. In addition to the work he has created, he was instrumental in the evolution of broadcast radio in the Ottawa market during the late 1970s and the 1980s — specifically, the Carleton University non-profit radio station CKCU-FM[4] and the commercial album-oriented rock radio station CHEZ-FM.
Jeff Green began his career in radio in 1972 at Carleton University'sCKCU-FM, when it was only running with a carrier current license — "broadcasting" by closed circuit to the university commons areas, and through a transmitter in the residence building to the students there. He was one of the founding Production Managers when CKCU received its FM radio license in 1975. In 1976, he became the founding Production Manager at the Ottawa album-oriented[5] rock station CHEZ-FM. In 1980 he received a Canada Council Explorations grant to create the radio drama Epiphanies, intended as a pilot for a series that was never produced. In addition to his work in radio, he was editor for the now-defunct tabloid entertainment paper Ottawa Revue from 1981 to 1983. From 1983 to 1985, he was Central and Eastern Canada's first VJ, presenting groundbreaking video programming at Ottawa rock and roll venue Barrymore's before music video television was generally available in Canada (MTV had just launched and was only available by satellite television, which was relatively rare at the time). In Ottawa, from 1979 through 1983, Jeff Green designed and executed an annual series of popular[6] live club multimedia performances at Hallowe'en entitled "Ne'ewollah".[7]
In 1990, Green began an association with members of Ottawa's Salt & Pepper Theatre Company which resulted in the four-season Cowboy Who? television series, an all-ages satire of children's programming for which he was co-creator, co-writer, producer, director, engineer, and performer. The series was broadcast from 1991 to 1995 on Mid-Canada Television, and won the 1992 Canpro Award (Canadian Independent Television Producer's Association) for Best Children's Series.
In 1993, he teamed up with the Animatics Multimedia Corporation, which resulted in the award-winning video-based interactive multimedia productions Midnight Stranger and Mode on which he acted as co-creator, writer, and director. These dramas were notable for their innovative user interface and "point of view" social interaction, and were hailed as being some of the finest productions available in their genre.[8]
"Epiphanies" (1980, 60 min.) — a disillusioned politician faces an opponent with an uncanny power over sound
"Spaxter" (1986, 45 min.) — a sardonic near-future thriller that pits a techno-telepathic private investigator against a self-styled digital deity
"The Tuning" (1986, 45 min.) — a portrait of a future media indistinguishable from reality, and the change to reality it helps bring about
"Flash!" (1986, 45 min.) — three people flee holocaust in the wilds of Northern Ontario only to discover that fate has something different in store for them
"Somebody Talking to You" (1986, 45 min.) — a present-day alt-culture dilettante witnesses the takeover of the world, one Walkman at time
"She Dreams of Atlantis" (1987, 45 min.) — an ad executive has visions of a past life that she just might still be living
"Spaxterback" (1987, 45 min.) — a near-omniscient future computer sets Spaxter on the track of an alien manifestation
Pink Floyd: You Gotta Be Crazy (1987, 60 min.) — a profile of Pink Floyd produced on the occasion of the first non-Waters tour supporting their "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" album
David Gilmour (1987, 75 min.) — (unedited) interview with David Gilmour at the start of Pink Floyd's first non-Waters tour, widely distributed amongst European Pink Floydfan network
Whatever Happened To Alice? (1987, 58 min.) — a profile of shock rocker Alice Cooper built around an interview on the eve of their 1987 tour
Ne'ewollah (1979 – 1983, various locations) — annual live club multimedia "Hallowe'en" performance
Midnight Stranger (1994, Animatics Multimedia Corporation) — writer and director of award-winning video-based multimedia CD-ROM production. Experienced from the player's point of view, they play a stranger in a late-night city who engages random people in conversation on the street, in bars, clubs, or restaurants
Mode (1995, Animatics Multimedia Corporation in collaboration with Corel Corpororation) — writer and director of video-based multimedia CD-ROM production. Experienced from the player's point of view, they crash a high-society party only to discover that something supernatural is occurring
1995 — Murphy Award for Best Story in an Interactive Multimedia Title (Electronic Entertainment) for Midnight Stranger
Inductee, ASFSFA Hall of Fame for "Spaxter" (American Society for Science Fiction Audio) Awarded a Mark Time Award for Best in Science Fiction Radio and Audio in the History of Recorded Sound[11]
^"Barrymore's Video Kid, Jeff Green, Is Dusting Off Some Unusual Footage". The Ottawa Citizen, May 18, 1983 — about an Elvis Presley video presentation.
^Crook, T. Radio Drama: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge, 1999. ISBN0-415-21603-6
^"CHEZ Radio Play a Sci-Fi Romp". The Ottawa Citizen, January 18, 1986, p. C16 — about the first airing of Spaxter.
^"Radio Carleton Ready to Roll". The Ottawa Journal, November 13, 1975, p.33 — features a large photo of Jeff Green at production controls, wearing torn shirt and jeans, Sennheiser headphones held together with duct tape, and with WWII-era military anti-snowblindness slit goggles on his forehead.
^"Ne'ewollaH Devotees Plan to Invade Barrymore's". The Ottawa Citizen, October 29, 1982 — about the "Trontastic Luminous Ne'ewollah" event.
^The backwards name derives from his having held multimedia rich Hallowe'en parties in his long and narrow apartment in the late 1970s. To get sufficient image size from the video projectors, he aimed them down a hallway and bounced them off a mirror, hence all images were backwards. Source: email from Jeff Green.
^e.g. Blackwell, G., "Take a Virtual Walk on the Wild Side". The Toronto Star, February 16, 1995.
^The script for the first episode of Azort Starbolt: Space Android was published in a compilation of radio source material for secondary school media courses: Schell, W. and Woollings, M. Reading, Writing and Radio. Longman Canada Ltd., 1977.
^"Lights! Camera! Ki-Ai! Aikido TV Series Shooting at RA". The RA News, December 1, 1984, p. 19.
